Continuous Penetration Testing

Testing cadence that tracks your change velocity, not your fiscal calendar. Networks, web applications, APIs, native apps, cloud, and identity, under one program.
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Definition

What is continuous penetration testing?

A subscription program that replaces the single annual test with always-on attack surface discovery, monthly validation of what changed, quarterly deep dives rotating through each asset class, and an annual full-scope red team. The premise is simple. You ship weekly, your cloud footprint moves daily, and your vendors change under you, so a report describing your environment as it stood eleven months ago is a historical document. Continuous testing keeps the finding stream close to the change that caused it, which is also when remediation is cheapest. It is sometimes sold as penetration testing as a service, though the label matters less than whether real operators test between the automated cycles.

Services

What does continuous coverage include?

Attack surface monitoring
Network and Active Directory
Web applications and APIs
Native iOS and Android apps
Cloud control plane and identity
Retest and remediation verification

Attack surface monitoring

Continuous enumeration of domains and subdomains, IP ranges, cloud assets, exposed services, certificates, application releases, API specifications, code repositories, and credential exposure in public sources. The deliverable is a diffed inventory rather than a list, because the useful signal is what appeared since last cycle. Net new reachable assets are prioritized for validation within days.

Network and Active Directory

External perimeter validated monthly and assessed in depth semiannually. Internal network and Active Directory reviewed monthly from a credentialed position, with semiannual deep dives covering delegation abuse, certificate services paths, credential hygiene, tiering failures, and the lateral routes that turn one workstation into domain-wide access.

Web applications and APIs

Applications tested at release and in depth quarterly, tiered so revenue-critical apps get more operator time. APIs are tested when the contract changes, triggered by specification diffs, which is how you catch the new endpoint that shipped without authorization rather than finding it next year. Coverage follows the OWASP Top 10, API Top 10, and ASVS.

Native iOS and Android apps

Each release screened as a binary and in live traffic, with a full assessment semiannually. We look at what the app stores locally, how it protects transport and whether pinning survives contact, what secrets ship inside the bundle, and above all whether the server enforces the authorization the client merely displays. Most serious mobile findings are server-side.

Cloud control plane and identity

Continuous configuration drift detection across AWS, Azure, and GCP, plus a quarterly review that traces actual privilege escalation paths instead of reciting misconfigurations. Identity coverage includes phishing resistance, MFA bypass classes, token and session handling, and the federation trusts that convert a single compromised account into tenant-wide access.

Retest and remediation verification

Findings close on verified retest, never on an assertion that a fix shipped. Retesting is included rather than billed as a change, because a program that charges for verification quietly teaches everyone to skip it. We also track recurrence, since the same finding class returning is a process defect rather than a bug.

Our approach

Our approach

01

Baseline the surface and the crown jewels

We start with full discovery and a crown-jewel mapping session, because coverage without prioritization spreads operator time evenly across assets that do not deserve equal attention. The output is an asset inventory, a tiering model, and an agreed cadence per asset class.

02

Let change drive the testing queue

New subdomain, new API endpoint, new cloud role, new app release, new vendor integration. Each is a trigger that moves a target up the queue. This is the mechanical difference between continuous testing and an annual test repeated more often.

03

Report into the workflow engineers use

Findings land in your tracker with severity, CVSS vector, evidence, reproduction steps, and a specific fix, so remediation starts without a translation meeting. Critical findings are escalated on discovery. Leadership gets a quarterly view built on trend rather than raw counts.

04

Measure the program, not the findings

Finding counts fall as a program matures, so they make a poor health metric. We report time to detect by attack stage, remediation velocity against severity SLAs, recurrence rate, attack surface delta, and the share of our activity your own tooling caught first.

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Outgrown the annual penetration test?

Talk to BD Emerson about your asset classes, release cadence, and compliance obligations, and we will scope a continuous program around them.

Our Advantage

Why BD Emerson for continuous testing

Operators, not just a scanner subscription

Automation handles discovery and regression. Humans do the exploitation, chaining, and business-logic work that tooling cannot reach. If a continuous testing proposal cannot tell you how many operator hours you get per month, it is a scanner with a dashboard.

One program, every asset class

Network, web, API, mobile, cloud, and identity under one methodology and one report standard. Attackers chain across these boundaries, and so should the team testing you. Separate vendors per asset class is how cross-domain attack paths stay invisible.

Compliance evidence falls out of it

The program produces the annual test artifacts your SOC 2, ISO 27001, or FedRAMP obligations require as a byproduct of continuous work, rather than as a separate scramble. One engagement satisfies the auditor and actually improves security.

Reviews

What our customers say

Great consulting firms for scaling security, compliance, and appsec.

Outstanding partner in Technical and Cyber Due Diligence

Appsec maturity and application hardening.

BD Emerson helped us simplfiy our compliance management.

BD Emerson did such a phenomenal job. What started as privacy support quickly became a full partnership across compliance, engineering, and even business operations. They’re embedded with our team. They understand our product. They move fast. They’re simply invaluable.

Adam Ben Jacobs

CTO @ OneStep GPS

Great consulting firms for scaling security, compliance, and appsec.

Outstanding partner in Technical and Cyber Due Diligence

Appsec maturity and application hardening.

BD Emerson helped us simplfiy our compliance management.

BD Emerson did such a phenomenal job. What started as privacy support quickly became a full partnership across compliance, engineering, and even business operations. They’re embedded with our team. They understand our product. They move fast. They’re simply invaluable.

Adam Ben Jacobs

CTO @ OneStep GPS

We had a hard time finding the right company to partner with in support of our compliance journey. Some vendors sell the idea that they do the work, but then you end up doing everything. The ambiguity is what killed our last project. BD Emerson’s team has such great technical knowledge and understands the standard so well that they made us comfortable with moving fast. This has led to us closing major enterprise customers that were previously out of reach because of security and compliance.

Tom Watkins

CEO @ AMI AssetTrack

Lead an enterprise initiative to overhaul the organization's technology stack from ecommerce, corporate tech, and corporate security.

Supported ISO 42001 exercise and served as internal auditor.

Rubrik's privacy and compliance team began with the backbone of BD Emerson. BD Emerson supported building out the privacy program, GRC (ISO 27001, SOC 2, CMMC, FedRAMP), and the appsec function.

We needed a partner who could move quickly, without sacrificing precision. BD Emerson brought the expertise, structure, and speed we were looking for. Their team became an extension of ours, embedding themselves across the organization, guiding us step by step, and giving us confidence in areas we hadn’t tackled before. The internal audit they conducted was so detailed that even the external auditors called it out. Achieving ISO 27001 with zero nonconformities says everything you need to know about the quality of the partnership.

Walid Souilem

CTO @ FGI Worldwide

We had a hard time finding the right company to partner with in support of our compliance journey. Some vendors sell the idea that they do the work, but then you end up doing everything. The ambiguity is what killed our last project. BD Emerson’s team has such great technical knowledge and understands the standard so well that they made us comfortable with moving fast. This has led to us closing major enterprise customers that were previously out of reach because of security and compliance.

Tom Watkins

CEO @ AMI AssetTrack

Lead an enterprise initiative to overhaul the organization's technology stack from ecommerce, corporate tech, and corporate security.

Supported ISO 42001 exercise and served as internal auditor.

Rubrik's privacy and compliance team began with the backbone of BD Emerson. BD Emerson supported building out the privacy program, GRC (ISO 27001, SOC 2, CMMC, FedRAMP), and the appsec function.

We needed a partner who could move quickly, without sacrificing precision. BD Emerson brought the expertise, structure, and speed we were looking for. Their team became an extension of ours, embedding themselves across the organization, guiding us step by step, and giving us confidence in areas we hadn’t tackled before. The internal audit they conducted was so detailed that even the external auditors called it out. Achieving ISO 27001 with zero nonconformities says everything you need to know about the quality of the partnership.

Walid Souilem

CTO @ FGI Worldwide

BD Emerson didn’t just help us meet our compliance goals; they integrated security and privacy into the core of our operations. I highly recommend BD Emerson to anyone seeking SOC 2 or GDPR compliance, or simply looking to enhance their security team and boost customer trust in their product and services. Their dedication and expertise have been invaluable to our success.

Padraig Reilly

CEO, Boxcore

BD Emerson understood our business requirements and worked side-by-side with us. The policies and controls we developed together not only meet compliance standards but improve how we operate day to day.

Matt Meierdierks

IT Manager, Lincoln Industries

From day one, BD Emerson brought urgency, clarity, and a sharp understanding of what truly matters to our business — earning and keeping customer trust. They went beyond helping us meet compliance requirements; they helped build a foundation for secure, scalable growth. That kind of partnership is rare.

Jason Marker

CEO @ LifeLenz

BD Emerson didn’t just help us pass an audit—they helped us build a sustainable culture of security.

Alexey Indeev

CTO Spare

BD Emerson was essential in helping our company navigate the daunting process of leveling up our security infrastructure. BD Emerson’s impressive expertise and confidence throughout the process helped our team exceed HIPAA and SOC 2 Type 1 standards quickly, distilling what can be an overwhelming process into a streamlined, organized effort. From day one they began adding value and getting us on course. With their help we delivered on a massive security overhaul with both extreme efficiency and thorough attention to details. Because of BD Emerson’s support, we’ve increased our clients’ trust in Titan Intake and the life-changing work it accomplishes for those seeking specialist referrals.

Patrick Bruce

CEO, Titan Intake

BD Emerson didn’t just help us meet our compliance goals; they integrated security and privacy into the core of our operations. I highly recommend BD Emerson to anyone seeking SOC 2 or GDPR compliance, or simply looking to enhance their security team and boost customer trust in their product and services. Their dedication and expertise have been invaluable to our success.

Padraig Reilly

CEO, Boxcore

BD Emerson understood our business requirements and worked side-by-side with us. The policies and controls we developed together not only meet compliance standards but improve how we operate day to day.

Matt Meierdierks

IT Manager, Lincoln Industries

From day one, BD Emerson brought urgency, clarity, and a sharp understanding of what truly matters to our business — earning and keeping customer trust. They went beyond helping us meet compliance requirements; they helped build a foundation for secure, scalable growth. That kind of partnership is rare.

Jason Marker

CEO @ LifeLenz

BD Emerson didn’t just help us pass an audit—they helped us build a sustainable culture of security.

Alexey Indeev

CTO Spare

BD Emerson was essential in helping our company navigate the daunting process of leveling up our security infrastructure. BD Emerson’s impressive expertise and confidence throughout the process helped our team exceed HIPAA and SOC 2 Type 1 standards quickly, distilling what can be an overwhelming process into a streamlined, organized effort. From day one they began adding value and getting us on course. With their help we delivered on a massive security overhaul with both extreme efficiency and thorough attention to details. Because of BD Emerson’s support, we’ve increased our clients’ trust in Titan Intake and the life-changing work it accomplishes for those seeking specialist referrals.

Patrick Bruce

CEO, Titan Intake

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FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How is this different from vulnerability scanning?

Will this satisfy our SOC 2 or ISO 27001 requirement?

Do you test production or staging?

What cadence do you recommend?

How do you avoid disrupting our environment?

Do you use AI in the testing?

How is it priced?

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